Mogadishu, January 9
A US air attack on a Somali village occupied by Islamists believed to be sheltering an Al-Qaida suspect has left ''many dead bodies'', a Somali government source said today.

In the first known direct US intervention in the Somali conflict, an AC-130 attack plane rained gunfire down on the southern village of Hayo late yesterday, the source told Reuters.

''The Americans are saying an Al-Qaida heading operations in east Africa is among the Islamists there,'' the source said.

He did not know the suspect's name or whether he died.

Hayo is in the southern tip of Somalia between Afmadow and Doble, areas where Ethiopian and Somali troops chased the Islamists' last remnants after ending their six-month rule of Mogadishu and most of southern Somalia in a two-week blitzkrieg.

The AC-130 is a propeller-driven cargo plane fitted with electronic sensors that allows it to pinpoint targets with heavy automatic cannon fire. Washington has used it extensively in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban and Al-Qaida there. CBS News, which first reported the attack quoting unnamed Pentagon officials, said the AC-130 was flown by the Special Operations command from the US Horn of Africa counter-terrorism base in Djibouti.